John L. Marks wanted to purchase and redevelop the commercial property at Marina City as early as 1992. His company, Mark IV Realty, had been in business since 1979. In 1988, it acquired a poorly maintained, 37 percent occupied 198-unit apartment complex in Vail, Colorado. Marks (left) not only renovated the complex, but re-positioned its marketing, turning away from individual renters and toward the corporate housing market. For the next 15 years, the complex was 100 percent occupied.

In 1992, Mark IV Realty acquired an abandoned 135,000 square foot industrial property on Chicago’s near north side and turned it into the city’s first Home Depot store.

Marina City, around this time, was a “rat hole,” according to an attorney for Marks. R. Kymn Harp (right), a commercial real estate attorney with Robbins, Salomon & Patt, Ltd., says the complex was “largely vacant. In foreclosure. Languishing in bankruptcy. Burdened with nearly $10 million in unpaid and delinquent real estate taxes. Physically decaying and needing tens of millions of dollars in repairs.“ Writing in his 2009 book Intent to Prosper, Harp described residential condo owners at the time as “understandably hostile and uncooperative, having been burned in the past by broken promises of prior owners.“

In 1993, after two of these failed attempts by other developers to acquire Marina City’s commercial property, Marks saw his chance. The bankruptcy trustee, Ilene F. Goldstein, appointed another of his companies, Niki Development Corporation – named after Marks’s wife – property manager. A contract for Marks to buy the property, good until October 11, 1994, was approved in federal bankruptcy court.

Marks would buy the property and pay the $700,000 electric bill and a $700,000 settlement with Cook County for property taxes that at one time exceeded $7 million.

The only holdup was a rival group that wanted to buy the property, too – a group that included Marina City’s architect, Bertrand Goldberg. Along with Marina Towers Condominium Association, Marina City Venture hired former United States Attorney Anton R. Valukas, a partner (now chairman) with the law firm Jenner & Block, to look into allegations of fraud with the Marks contract.

Among other issues, they were concerned about why the tax-delinquent property did not go to auction. They asked for a court hearing on the matter. (Left) In 2009, Valukas was appointed examiner in the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. He is seen here testifying at a House Financial Services Committee hearing on April 20, 2010.

Goldstein explained that bankruptcy regulations take precedence over other statutes that normally would have disposed of the property, so it was not unusual that a contract was signed with a developer instead of selling to the highest bidder at an auction. She also pointed out that Marina City Venture made a bid that was rejected by the bankruptcy court before the Marks contract was approved.

In October 1994, the plaza around the towers was, according to Roger Levin, president of Marina City Venture, “a sea of broken concrete and asphalt.” Rotting stairs leading to the walkway along the river had been closed for more than three years. A portion of the steel-mesh vehicle ramp at the State Street entrance, opened after repairs were made to rusting supports a year earlier, was closed again.

Three million dollars buys all commercial property at Marina City

On November 11, 1994, the commercial property was sold for $3.35 million to developer John Marks, at one time the property manager, who announced plans for a $70 million facelift.

“Our goal is to return Marina City to the great complex it once was in the eyes of many people,” said Marks.

The Chicago Tribune said the acquisition by Marks “almost certainly dashes any hope by Bertrand Goldberg, the complex’s architect and one of the acknowledged geniuses of 20th Century design, to be involved in the renovations.”

According to bankruptcy trustee Goldstein, Marks had the inside track with a solid cash offer – and that as property manager he had spent thousands of dollars of his own money to keep the complex afloat.

By this time, the county had backed out of a deal to accept $700,000 as payment for past-due property taxes. The title Marks was given was free of liens, so this was a detail to be worked out between Goldstein and Marina City’s creditors.

Marks would keep the theater building, possibly convert the office building to another use, add three or four restaurants, build new entrances at State and Dearborn Streets, and refurbish the river walkway. The unused skating rink would be covered and become part of the restaurant space.

Although he respected Goldberg’s design, Marks said he did not plan to consult with him about the redevelopment.

“I have due respect for his creative genius in creating buildings like this,” Marks told the Chicago Tribune. “Our decisions on the changes to be made will in the long run basically go with the architectural genius of what he created there.”

Levin, now a real estate developer in Northbrook, Illinois, broke the news to Goldberg, who was said to be “very disappointed and surprised.”

Marks said he would begin cosmetic improvements to the lobby area in the next month or so, and that “individual unit owners and residents will be pleased” with the redevelopment. (Right) Handwritten note from Goldberg to Levin dated November 4, 1994 (Goldberg is using a Roman numeral for the month, a style popular in Europe). “To Roger Levin, who will again bring the City within a City back to Chicago – With gratitude, Bertrand Goldberg.”

Marks career not without controversy

In 1986, John Marks was sued for $5 million in United States District Court by Anvan Company, a real estate partnership in Lombard, Illinois, of which Marks was president before being fired in 1983.

The company’s managing general partner, Anthony A. Antonious, claimed Marks secretly formed a competing company and used it to defraud Anvan by profiting from real estate opportunities about which Anvan knew nothing. One of the opportunities was the John R. Thompson Center on North Clark Street in Chicago, from which Marks allegedly made $930,000.

The $5 million lawsuit was settled out of court.